Welcome home, Shinyribs

Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell might have been born in Beaumont, but when he plays the South Texas State Fair tomorrow night, it’ll be only his second show in town.

And his first one … well, this show won’t be much like that first show.

“I played the Vortex,” he said, referencing the now-closed hole-in-the-wall on 11th Street. “It was pretty rowdy.”

Russell was born at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital and went to Regina Howell, but left Beaumont when he was pretty young, as his dad was in the oil business and moved a lot.

But he stayed in Southeast Texas, living in Houston and Shreveport, La., and cut his teeth playing at Louisiana biker bars and other Southeast Texas dives before moving to Austin and finding success with his country/rock/Texas psychedelic band The Gourds.

You can count on his fair show being a little more family-friendly.

“I’m looking forward to playing Beaumont,” Russell said. “I used to go to the fair as a kid.”

Russell — with a golden voice that begs to be heard in a sawdust-filled honky-tonk — straddles the line between country, swamp pop and Texas psychedelic, to a magical effect. He appeals to blue-collar country folk and Austin hipsters alike, but he’s got some deep blues roots that make his music incredibly versatile.

It’s the psychedelic edge of this singer/songwriter’s work that really gets me. Listen to “Morning’s Night” on his Reverb Nation page to see what I mean. The guitar and pedal steel on that track is so wistful and imaginative that you suddenly feel like you’re floating through space. Texas space.

When I talked to Russell, he was taking a break from a recording session at a studio outside Woodstock, N.Y., where he’s recording another album with country/blues/rock outfit The Gourds. You know, the guys responsible for the countrified cover of Snoop Dogg’s cover of “Gin & Juice.”

They’ve been together so long and recorded so many albums, Russell has lost count.

“I think it’s 10, best we can tell,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe 11.”

But this album is the first they’ve recorded outside of Austin, he said, let alone across the country.

“It’s snowing outside, that’s a big difference,” he said. “It’s a huge difference. Being away from home, we’re all just living in a house here together and coming over (to the studio) every morning. We’re together the whole time and that makes a huge difference.”

That focus — as well as the change of scenery — will certainly have an effect on the final recording, Russell said.

“We’re very distracted with our lives while we’re (in Austin) working,” he said. “It’s nice just having time to do nothing but this.”

That album is due out in September, but lucky for us, we don’t have to wait that long to hear Shinyribs’ incredible, down-home vocals. Check him out at the fair when he comes through, because this Beaumont boy doesn’t make it home too often.